Every few months a video of two glass globes on a stand goes round again: the water climbs, the coffee blooms in the top, the heat comes off and the brew falls back down, filtered, with nobody touching it. The caption calls it physics. It is, and the brewer has a name: a siphon, or vacuum pot. This page says what is actually happening in the glass, what grind and heat it wants, what the one on our shelf costs today, and which part you will be buying again.
We are never paid for a review. We sell the siphons on this page in our store, so weigh the enthusiasm. Details
● Written from the listings on our store, November 9, 2026Prices and models move — tell us if something here is stale
What this is: the wording and prices of the Yama Glass listings on our store (the copy is Espresso Parts', the specialty shop in Lacey, Washington that ships them), read November 9, 2026 and quoted where it matters, plus the general physics of a vacuum brewer, which has not changed since the 1800s.
What this is not: a bench test. We have not brewed on these siphons, timed them or measured the water temperature in the top chamber. Where the listing says "about 60 seconds" we report the claim. The viral video does not name its maker; the Japanese brand best known for siphons is Hario, and hario-usa.com answered our reads today with HTTP 429, so there is no Hario price here.
Prices are our store's on November 9, 2026. The maker sites we tried (espressoparts.com, yamaglass.com) returned 404 on the product handles we tried the same morning, so we quote only what we could read.
A siphon is two chambers of glass on a stand. The lower one is a sealed bulb that holds the water; the upper one is an open chamber with a tube running down from it into the bulb, and a filter at the bottom of the tube. A burner sits under the bulb. In the Yama design we sell, the burner is your stove and a wire trivet keeps the glass off the element.
The sequence in every one of those videos is the same: the water boils up the tube into the top, you stir the coffee in, it steeps for about a minute, you take the heat away, and the coffee drains back down through the filter into the bulb, leaving the spent grounds on top. Remove the top chamber, pour from the bottom. The brewer is also sold as a "vacuum pot" or "vac pot", and the two spellings, siphon and syphon, are the same thing.
That is the whole trick: one pressure cycle, no pump, no valve, nothing electrical. The reason it looks like magic is that the second half runs backwards from what a kettle does.
Grind finer than drip. The listing on our store is blunt about it: "Use a fine or espresso grind for the best brew. A coarse grind doesn't extract as nicely so you'll be left with a weaker cup of coffee", and in the directions "a slightly finer grind of coffee, somewhere around 'auto drip'". The two sentences disagree a little; start at a drip grind and step finer. The cloth filter catches the fines a paper cone would let through, which is why siphon coffee is cleaner than press coffee at the same grind. If you don't own a grinder, the grinder guide comes first.
Dose by the mark. Yama's directions: fill the bottom bulb to the 8-cup mark with hot water (hot, to save time on the stove) and "place 8 measuring spoons of coffee in the top chamber". A Yama cup is 3 to 4 oz, so the 8-cup brews about 24 oz. By weight, our 1:16 calculator puts that at roughly 44 g of coffee for 710 mL of water; weigh it with a scale the first few times and then trust the spoon.
Medium heat, never high. The listing's capitals, not ours: "turn to medium heat. DO NOT TURN THE BURNER ON HIGH." The glass is borosilicate, which the listing says "won't crack under extreme temperatures", but a hard flame on a glass bulb is how siphons get broken, and the water climbs just as well on medium. Hook the cloth filter's chain to the bottom of the tube before you start, so the filter stays seated when the water comes up.
Then wait. About 60 seconds in the top, off the heat, and the coffee comes back down on its own. The listing's last step is the one people skip: "gently rock the upper carafe back and forth until it can easily be removed", because the seal between the chambers is a gasket and it grips.
We carry one siphon line, Yama Glass, in two sizes, both shipped by Espresso Parts in Lacey, Washington. Read these entries as a shelf, not a ranking: we have not brewed on them, and the figures are the listing's own.
The full-size one. The listing calls it "akin to something in a scientific laboratory" and "as much a conversation piece as it is a quality coffee brewer", and lists what you get: "heat-resistant borosilicate glass", a handle that "is heat resistant", "1 filter cloth, filter assembly, lid, and measuring spoon", a wire trivet for the burner, and "Made in Taiwan", MPN SY8. The glass is dishwasher safe per the listing. One line worth quoting for the people who ask about plastic: "Plastic does not come into contact with the water or grounds."
What it gives up: it is a stovetop brewer, so there is no built-in burner and no induction; the cloth filter needs rinsing after every brew and replacing eventually (below); and the whole thing is glass on a stand, so it lives on a shelf, not in a drawer. None of that is a flaw in the coffee. In stock on our store this morning.
The same brewer scaled for one or two people, and the listing says it is "a popular coffee maker for us". Same glass, same cloth filter and spoon, same instructions, five dollars less. It was sold out on our store on the morning of November 9, 2026, so we link the 8-cup above instead; this entry stays so you know the size exists and what it costs when it is back. The listing's "PRO TIP" is the same: fine or espresso grind.
If what you liked in the video was the glass and the slow pour rather than the vapour trick, this is the other glass brewer on our shelf. The listing describes it as "a full immersion coffee brewer" that "can brew coffee, tea, and cold brew", "made with heat-resistant, hand-blown borosilicate glass", with a "stainless steel cone filter that is reusable (included)" and a bottom beaker that "holds 473 mL, or 16 oz". No heat under it, no pressure cycle, nothing to rock loose; you pour hot water, it steeps, you release it. It is here as the honest alternative, not as a siphon.
A siphon is the rare brewer where every piece is a spare part, and that is the quiet argument for one: you buy a filter, not a brewer, when something wears. All of these are Yama Glass parts on our shelf, shipped by Espresso Parts, prices as of November 9, 2026.
Compare that with a glass cold brew tower or a glass French press, where a broken carafe often means a new brewer. Replaceability is the thing the video never mentions and the thing that decides whether a $68 brewer is still in use in five years.
| Brewer | Type | Brew size | Heat | Filter | Price (Nov 9, 2026) | On our store |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yama 8 Cup Siphon | Vacuum (siphon) | About 24 oz | Stove, medium | Cloth over mesh | $68 | In stock |
| Yama 5 Cup Siphon | Vacuum (siphon) | About 15 oz | Stove, medium | Cloth over mesh | $63 | Sold out Nov 9 |
| Yama Silverton | Full-immersion drip (not a siphon) | 16 oz | None (kettle water) | Stainless cone, Kalita 185 papers optional | $126 | In stock |
A siphon, also spelled syphon, also sold as a vacuum pot. Two glass chambers on a stand; heat pushes the water up, cooling draws the coffee back down through a filter. The section above walks through it in four steps.
Heating the sealed bottom bulb makes vapour that pushes the water up into the open top chamber; take the heat away and the cooling vapour lets the room's air pressure push the brewed coffee back down through the filter.
Finer than drip. The listing says "fine or espresso" in one place and "slightly finer… around auto drip" in another; start at drip and go one step finer. The cloth filter handles the fines.
The listing's method is one of its measuring spoons per Yama cup, eight for the 8-cup mark. By weight our 1:16 calculator makes that about 44 g for the 24 oz the bulb holds.
Not directly: the bulb is glass, and induction heats ferrous metal. The listing describes a wire trivet on a burner at medium heat and does not mention induction. We have not tested it.
If you like French press coffee and want a cleaner cup, a steadier temperature and a show, yes, and at $68 with every part replaceable it is cheaper than it looks. If you want the fastest good cup with the least washing-up, a pour-over wins. The physics is real either way; the ritual is what you are buying.
No. Every figure here is the listing's own wording on our store, read and dated November 9, 2026, plus general physics. We sell them, and that is labelled wherever it matters. When we have brewed on one, this page will say so.
Wanting the brewer in the video: the Yama 8-cup, $68, with a second pack of cloth filters in the same order so the first stained one does not stop you brewing. Buy whole beans and grind a step finer than drip.
Wanting the glass without the stove: the Silverton, and then read the pour-over guide before you decide, because a $29 ceramic cone makes the same cup.
And whichever you buy, put a bag with a roast date in it. A siphon shows off fresh coffee and cannot hide stale coffee; that is the only thing it has in common with every other brewer on this site.